As the NFL and the NFL Players Association negotiate every detail of football in a pandemic, a key question will be whether players can and will do everything they need to do – not everything they shouldn’t do – August to December (or, in the case of 12 eliminating teams, until January and possibly until January). There are many reasons to think it will be a bigger challenge than previously thought.
Concrete example: the OL brain summit in Dallas. Aaron Wilson from Houston Chronicle posted videos of the event. This shows the Saints attacking Terron Armstead (without mask) aimed at a group of offensive liners who are certainly not more than six feet apart. Many do not wear masks or their masks are lowered. (This is one of the main design flaws in the mask. In order for it to work properly. It actually has to, you know, cover the mouth and nose.)
If this is not alarming enough, here is a video of a hot-wing cooking competition at the OL Mastermind Summit, won by Buccaneers center Ryan Jensen. There are well over a dozen fat men in the game, the bodies pressed against each other while two of them furiously eat chicken wings. A man in the background wears a mask.
It is men who are inherently at increased risk of serious consequences, given their BMI. And they adopt this behavior in Dallas, one of the current homes of COVID-19.
At a time when the football season seems to be at stake, this group of offensive liners has just jumped to the side of the ladder that lands on “try again next year.” So, as the NFL and NFLPA prepare to continue negotiations on Monday on the various things that need to be done before the season can start, participants should consider asking themselves an important question: why bother?
